Newbie seeking tips to win a competition and life, page-7

There are a few key points in the write up below which found it's way into my Twitter feed the other day. Funnily enough the starting amount he references in one of his examples is the same as yours - $3000!

As for Hot Copper; work out who knows what they're talking about, and who is just ramping. And do it quickly.

Also get on Twitter, and follow your favourite HC posters. Can't recommend this enough.

“Today, October 6th, marks a new era in my trading career.

An era of (1) patience, (2) discipline, (3) focus, (4) grit, and (5) self awareness.

(1.) PATIENCE

• Do not over trade. A single trade a week that is a guaranteed win and a familiar setup is all you need.
• Let trades come to you, and when they do, go big.
• Take time to thoroughly evaluate the trade setup, play devil’s advocate and set up your risk management.
• Your level headed trading plan before your money was involved in the market was a trading plan for a reason, let it ride out. It may not work every time but over a long span of time the wins will heavily outweigh the losses.
• The power of compound interest. If you make a trade with just a 1% profit return, everyday, for a year, starting with just $3,000 dollars, by the end of the year you would have over $100,000 dollars.

(2.) DISCIPLINE

• Do not FOMO, there will ALWAYS be another trade.
• Do not trade tired, mad, drunk or sad.
• Do not envy other trades/traders.
• No matter how great the trade looks at the moment do not jump into it without knowing where your stop loss and take profit are before hand.
• Always protect your profits, in the same manner you would if you were losing money. (If you are having trouble taking profit, picture your current profit margin like it was a loss and realize the damage it would do to your portfolio. Humans have a higher emotional threshold for gaining than they do losing, causing you to have a lesser emotional response to a winning trade.)

(3.) FOCUS

• Meditate daily.
• Be present when trading.
• Trade the market, not your bias. Point out the reasons why your trade could fail and weigh them against the reasons you originally thought it would succeed.
• Reduce trading time and go outside. Human brains have a specific amount of energy they can devote to decision making per day before those decisions becomeless than optimal.
• Sleep/exercise more. You might as well be trading drunk if you are functioning on 5 or less hours of sleep.

(4.) GRIT

• Just like with anything in life, you can do this.
• “3 feet from striking gold, don’t turn back now.”
• Pay your tuition to the market. This is a profession just like a surgeon or a lawyer is. Studying is an absolute requirement.
• Trading is war, someone is victorious and the other defeated. Embody a warrior mentality (don’t give up).

(5.) Self Awareness

• Observe your emotions before, during and after a trade.
• Use your emotions as indicators, and sometimes even counter indicators.
• Breathe.
• Watch what you eat, drink more water.
• Figure out your strengths and weaknesses. Triple down on your strengths, avoid your weaknesses.
• Analyse every trade after closing. (Document them)